To Heal a Broken Mind
by Advialoth
Summary: Have you ever wondered why Andros and Zhane are so close? Why they can sense each other? Why Andros has such a deep connection to Zhane, but almost none with his sister? This might be the reason...


Have you ever wondered why Andros and Zhane are so close

Have you ever wondered why Andros and Zhane are so close? Why they can sense each other? Why Andros has such a deep connection to Zhane, but almost none with his sister?

I did.

This story is based largely on the idea that Andros and Karone were twins, and my brain ran off wondering what the bond might be like between telepathic twins.

Here is what it found.

* * *

**To Heal a Broken Mind**

(Otherwise entitled: 'In the beginning')

Andros' parents were both career-minded, his father Daros was an aeronautics technician, and his mother Pheora a landscape artist. Neither of them had ever paid a lot of attention to him or his twin sister, Karone. Despite their babysitter (who came every afternoon on weekdays) assuring them that their parents loved them very much, Andros couldn't see it.

By the age of six, Andros knew something was different. His best friend Zhane's parents took him to the park nearly every weekend, while his own mother and father continued to work on their computers. Children aren't meant to be melancholy, and Andros matured faster than most children, fighting to keep the light in his sister's eyes.

He realized that Karone would be close behind him, and soon mature enough to understand as he did, that their parents loved work more than their children.

When he was almost seven, he finally decided he had to do something, so every weekend he began to take Karone to the park himself. As Karone grew to fully realize the hurtful truth that her parents had no time for her, it was tempered with the knowledge that Andros would do anything to keep her happy.

Sometimes they would play with Zhane, but most days they created their own games, and on rare occasions Andros would sneak his mother's old collapsible ball out of the house.

He and Karone were both quite advanced in both telekinesis and telepathy, because they had no-one besides their babysitter to regulate the time they spent practicing. The collapsible ball made the whole exercise much more fun. Karone loved to spin it, and Andros would try to make it collapse and expand while she spun it in front of her.

They always played this particular game hidden near the back of the park, away from the adults who would tell them to stop, or the children who would try to join in and throw off their careful concentration.

-X-

Andros was eight when his world shattered. Karone, in a fit of mischief, sent the ball spinning off through the undergrowth, giggling as Andros chased after it. He would later berate himself for not simply using his own telekinesis to drag it back, but at the time he was still a child, and he raced after it.

Almost as soon as his hands closed around the wayward ball, the calmness of the park was torn apart by a piercing scream that echoed in his mind, unmistakably his sister's mindvoice. He would later realize she had screamed out loud as well, but the resonance of her terrified pleas for help was so mind-piercing that he never heard her vocal cries.

He struggled to stay standing for a moment and called to her, then focused all his willpower on forcing himself to move, to run back towards where he had left her. He was just in time to catch a glimpse of a large, dark shadow retreating through the trees.

He called her name one last time, and collapsed on the grass, tears pouring down his face as Karone's terrified mindvoice split his skull, unable to concentrate on anything but the shrieking in his mind. It took ten minutes for his sister to reach the edge of her telepathy range, and as her voice in his mind slowly began to fade away, Andros finally dragged himself to his feet. He had to tell someone… and the first person he thought of was the babysitter.

He raced all the way home from the park, forgetting that it was the weekend and she wouldn't be there. His parents barely looked up from their work as he tore through the house, and the only response to his frustrated cry was a 'shush' from his father. The next person he thought of was Zhane. He would be playing sports in the park, but his parents might be home, and they would help him.

As he dashed three houses down the street, he concentrated on the piece of his mind that Karone occupied. He had once heard that Kerovan twins shared much stronger links than Earth twins, thanks to their mind gifts. It certainly explained why he and Karone always knew where the other was, or how they were feeling. Usually he could feel her smiling, or one of the many strange tunes she liked to hum in her head. Now all he could find was a faint sense of terror and revulsion, and an all-encompassing cold blackness. The thing that held her captive was orange and evil, but that was all the detail he could get from Karone's horrified mind.

When he arrived at Zhane's house, he almost collapsed in relief as he found his friend's parents sitting in the kitchen. As Andros tried to choke out his story, the two adults shared a dark look over his head. They had often wondered about the twin's parents, but the fact that Andros would come to them in such a state instead of going home further cemented their suspicions.

"Calm down Andros." Caira gathered the small boy into her arms, looking pointedly at her husband Veyrin, who knelt beside them.

"Now then, what happened?" he asked kindly.

"Karone's gone!" wailed Andros, "There was something in the park! I didn't see it, she says it's orange, and evil!"

"What was it?" asked Caira urgently, "Did it take her away?"

"It was a monster." Andros was interrupted by hiccups. "She was screaming," he hiccupped again, "…so loud… in my head." He burst into tears once more, not noticing the fearful glances of his friend's parents.

"Come on Andros, we'll go and talk to the Guardians." Veyrin clasped the boy's shoulder gently.

Andros stared at him hopefully through the tears. "They'll find her, won't they? She can't have gone too far…" Veyrin carried Andros out to their car, Caira fidgeting nervously along behind them.

Thankfully the ride to the closest Guardian station was a short one. Andros was silent in the front seat, concentrating again on Karone. She was getting fainter, but all the distance in the universe wouldn't take her mind from his. He focused everything he had on her, pushing feelings of love towards her, and vengeance on her captor. She was too far to send words, but he knew she understood. He would find her, even if it took everything he had. He would never stop searching.

-X-

Caira sat behind her son's best friend, watching carefully. He had his eyes screwed shut in concentration, barely moving. To be honest, she was terrified. Scientists had always been slightly amazed at the Kerovan mind, especially their powers, and there had been a lot of research done. Some of the more interesting papers she had read on the subject focused on twins. To all intents and purposes, they shared a mind. They bolstered each other's minds and powers, and were unable to keep secrets from each other unless highly trained or focused, always knowing the rough location of each other, the physical and emotional condition, their hopes and dreams and fears.

The fact that Andros had no idea where Karone was had scared her badly, not just for Karone's sake, but also for her brother. A bond so strong was not easily broken, and on the rare occasions that it was, the consequences were disastrous. When one twin died or was disconnected mentally, the other twin often went mad. Some would become hermits, unable to take any mental contact again. Others became vegetables, losing themselves as well as their other half. In extreme cases where the bond was cut suddenly, the remaining twin could die from the mental shock.

Even though Caira was trained as a nurse, she knew she wouldn't be able to handle the situation. It wasn't physical. They would need a mind healer, fast. She just hoped that whoever had taken Karone didn't know much about Kerovans, and hopefully wouldn't kill the girl.

So, when they got to the station, she left Veyrin and Andros explaining the situation to three very solemn Guardians, and called the base hospital for help. It was almost scary how helpful everyone was once they heard the situation. They sent their best pediatric mind healer almost at once, although Caira wondered cynically if it was out of genuine concern or a desire to observe something that rarely occurred.

Her feverish recital of everything she knew about the twins was cut short by a desperate shriek that wormed its way through her brain, joined almost immediately by a continual blast of pure pain and anguish, tearing through her shields and threatening to overwhelm her. She dropped the transmitter and ran back to where she had left her husband and Andros, the wailing getting louder, the pain sharper with every step, until it took all of her focus to even move.

Andros was curled up on the floor, tears pouring down his chalk white face, but his cries of despair were no match for the piercing mental wail that rang through the minds of anyone within his range. The three guardians had moved as far away from him as they could without leaving the room, each one cradling their head in their hands, eyes watering.

Veyrin had obviously tried to reach for Andros, but he was curled on the floor beside the boy, arms around his head in a futile, reflexive attempt to stop the overpowering noise and pain. Caira sat heavily on the floor by the door, trying in vain to repair her shielding. Almost as soon as she started she gave it up, instead focusing on her own feelings toward Andros and Karone, and for her own son Zhane, pushing all the love and protection she had towards the child who lay on the floor tearing his own mind apart, looking for something that was no longer there.

Around the station, people froze. Cars crashed outside. People suddenly collapsed on the pavements, children and adults adding their own reflected pain to the growing mind storm. Andros already had a telepathy range quite astounding for an eight year old, and now desperation was giving him new strength, allowing him to reach further, trying to push the pain somewhere else, so he could concentrate on finding Karone.

By the time the mind healer arrived, the whole city had felt his grief, and wept with him.

-X-

Doctor Syrione thought she was prepared. She dealt with children every day at work, and still loved them. While she hadn't had to deal with a 'twin-breaking' before, she had studied them in depth, and during her fifteen years in the profession she had seen nearly everything. So, armed with her experience and a mind shielding device, she set out for the sixteenth Guardian station, and the poor little boy who was almost certainly going to loose his intense grasp on his sister's mind.

While kidnappings were rarer now than when the colony had first been established, they still happened occasionally. There were people out there who wanted the incredible Kerovan mind talents for their own, and the easiest way to accomplish that was to get their hands on a Kerovan to enslave. The PsychNets were the worst of their weapons, cutting off any external contact that wasn't physical, leaving the victim trapped in their own mind until they would break down, and believe almost anything told to them. Years ago she had worked with a young man who had been rescued from such a fate, but he had never fully recovered.

As she drove further down the main street, Doctor Syrione noticed something. In the distance, people were collapsing. Like a tide getting closer, they fell to the ground, many curling in on themselves. As the mysterious plague spread, it gained momentum, moving faster, and the Doctor had barely time to stop her vehicle before the wave crashed over her, shattering her professional grade mind shields. All she knew was the purest form of pain, all pervading grief and soul crushing despair, roaring through her mind in an uncontrollable maelstrom.

She reached blindly for the mind shield net she had thrown into the passenger's seat, and jammed it clumsily over her hair. As the pain and noise receded to a barely manageable level, she slumped in her seat for a moment, shaking.

She had never even imagined a child could posses the power needed for such a brutal mind storm, even a twin. The depth of feeling between the two was amazing, and frightening. Even though Kerovans were accustomed to mind contact, such a deep and natural bond was frightening. To have another person woven through your own mind like that… but the two of them had been torn apart. Broken.

It would be a miracle if the boy survived.

-X-

Andros woke in a cool, white room. He instinctually reached his mind for Karone again, pushing away the pain of loosing her, from the raw and tattered pieces of his mind that were once connected to her into the minds nearby. He focused only on his sister. She was still out there somewhere, and he would find her.

His parents, even in the shielded waiting room nearby, slumped into their chairs, tears falling unbidden down their cheeks. They had had never really noticed how close their two children had got, just that they were content to play on their own. Now they wept, because they knew there was no way their tentative relationship with their son could possibly hope to fill the void left by his sister. Nevertheless, they resolved to try.

Veyrin, Caira and Zhane were also in the waiting room. While his parents gripped each others' hands tightly, Zhane left his seat. Running down the halls, past nurses holding back their tears, his only thought was to get to his friend and help. In retrospect, it might have been better if he had left the door to his friend's room closed. Opening the door broke the seal on the heavily shielded room, and the full force of Andros' pain blasted through the hallways.

Zhane nearly fell down from the force of it, but he was nothing if not stubborn. He managed to make his way to the bed, crawling onto it next to Andros, who looked very small and pale at the moment. Hugging the younger boy tightly, Zhane touched his friend's mind with the gentlest of whispers.

_-Andros, can I help?-_

_-I have to find her!-_ came the frantic reply. -_I know she's still out there! She didn't die, I'd know! She's just gone! All of her is gone!- _

Zhane reinforced his mindvoice with as much reassurance as he could.

_-So can I help find her?-_

_-Would you?-_ For the first time since the Breaking, Andros almost felt happy. -_How would you help?-_

Zhane thought for a moment, leaving his mind open to Andros.

_-Maybe if I help push you, like she used to.-_ It was all he could come up with. He'd often felt Karone somehow pushing her brother's mind, making it stronger. Sometimes Andros did the same for her.

Andros took a moment to consider the idea. Zhane might not know how to push correctly, but he remembered clearly how it felt, and he was sure he could help Zhane do it properly.

_-Alright, see if you can.-_ he threw a burst of gratitude at Zhane. -_I'll help you do it right.- _

The two boys threw their minds together, at first it felt strange to Zhane having his mind so open, but Andros had always shared his mind with someone. As a result, he was very open to others, not realizing just how amazing the level of trust he displayed was. Zhane might not have been as trusting as Andros, but the two boys had been friends from the moment they met at their daycare center. They had shared almost everything, and for this one friend he felt comfortable opening his mind.

Andros latched onto Zhane eagerly, showing his friend exactly what to do. Zhane settled into a place in his mind that only Karone had ever been to, and concentrated on helping Andros as best he could. Unnoticed by either boy, the ragged tendrils of Andros' injured mind grasped onto the mind in Karone's place, weaving it into position.

Suddenly the pain lessened slightly, some of the edges had healed, and the two minds shot outwards as one. Andros led the search, knowing what to look for, but it was Zhane who provided the extra power. When they couldn't find her, Andros began to panic again.

_-Andros, we'll find her.-_ Zhane tried to calm him, and Andros felt it echo softly through his own mind. Whereas once Karone had been the only one able to reach so deep, now Zhane was there. It wasn't as strong as Karone's presence, but it was enough. They could go on together.

_-I'll have to get better.-_ was Andros' calm reply. -_When I find her, I'll kill whatever took her.-_

Zhane felt the determination, the fury and fire in his friend's words. His sense of Andros' mind was clearer that it had ever been before, and Zhane smiled.

_-I'm coming too.-_

* * *

So what did you think?

I might continue it one day… far in the future. I want to get a bit further on my other projects before I start another one. Space was the first season I ever saw, and still remains my favourite, but I forced myself to stop here. I've almost finished another part of '_Mystic Holiday_' anyway, so I really ought to get back to it…


End file.
